


Getting the Drop

by luxover



Series: The Family [4]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-28
Updated: 2012-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-17 05:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/548223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxover/pseuds/luxover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Such a shit show,” Villa says. He and Leo are outside the farmhouse, and Leo’s watching him light a cigarette, watching how his breath and the smoke look exactly the same in the cold nighttime air. “We look like a joke.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting the Drop

**Author's Note:**

> Written for and prompted by [flywoman](http://flywoman.livejournal.com/) over at [a prompt post at lj](http://luxover.livejournal.com/26577.html)

Some fucking asshole from Madrid gets the drop on the Don, leaving him unresponsive in the hospital, and leaving Barcelona without a Boss.  
  
“Such a shit show,” Villa says. He and Leo are outside the farmhouse, and Leo’s watching him light a cigarette, watching how his breath and the smoke look exactly the same in the cold nighttime air. “We look like a joke.”  
  
“I know,” Leo says, and he knows he shouldn’t, knows he should never speak ill of the family, but it’s just the two of them and so he can’t help it. “I just can’t believe Xavi didn’t step up, or Puyi or someone.”  
  
“And done what?” Villa asks. He leans back against Dani’s car, and even though he won’t leave behind so much as a scratch, Dani’ll know, and Leo knows he’ll be mad. “Say,  _The Don didn’t trust me enough to make me his Underboss, but now that he’s out of the picture, I’m the best option to take his place_? Yeah, that would’ve gone over well.”  
  
“Better than bringing in this new guy,” Leo says, dropping his voice even lower. “Tito Vilanova? Have you ever even heard of him? At least Xavi was  _consigliere,_  and Puyi—”  
  
Leo heard—and he's not sure if this is true or not, because he heard it from Cesc, who can never really seem to get his facts straight—that Don Guardiola had asked Puyi to be  _consigliere_  when he took over, only Puyi said no because he wanted to stay with the grunts and the muscle. Leo can't ever imagine saying no to the Don, but he figures it must have worked out alright because Xavi's  _consigliere_ and Puyi's still with them, El Capitan til the end.  
  
Only maybe that’s not as great as Leo thought, because Don Guardiola’s still in the hospital and they’re still stuck with Vilanova filling in until Guardiola wakes up, and Leo knows he shouldn’t even be thinking this way about the new Boss, but the Family comes first, and Leo’s worried; except for a job or two, Vilanova hasn’t been Family the entire time Leo’s been here.  
  
“Puyi’s exactly where he fucking wants to be,” Villa says, rolling his eyes. “He didn’t want any part of any promotion, and the old man’s getting soft if he thought he could go this long without appointing a successor.”  
  
“Victor’ll pistol whip you if he hears you talking about the Don like that,” Leo says. It’s half a joke, an attempt to lighten the mood.  
  
“I don’t give a fuck,” Villa tells him. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here now that—”  
  
He cuts himself off. Leo lets out a deep breath and brushes his hair back from his forehead with one palm. He knows that it’s been hard for Villa, that Villa’s not been part of the Barcelona Family all his life like Leo has and that Villa’s had so much more taken away from him because of Family rivalries than Leo ever has, but still. Leo hates hearing Villa talk like this, like he's lost so much that he doesn’t even care anymore.  
  
“We just gotta—we gotta stick together,” Leo says. “The Don’ll pull through, and Barcelona will be back on top, and Madrid will get what’s coming to them, and—I don’t know. But we can’t just bail on the Family when the Family needs us most.”  
  
“The Family always fucking needs us,” Villa says. And then after a long pause, he says, "This place has gone to shit since Zlatan left." He flicks the ashes off of his cigarette, and there’s not much left besides the butt.  
  
"Yeah, but Zlatan didn't  _leave,_ " Leo tells him, and for some reason, he feels like he has to remind Villa of that. "He got thrown in the joint for punching a cop at a grocery store."  
  
"I  _know_  that," Villa says. "Still, what a difference one stupid motherfucker makes to a place, you know?"  
  
"Yeah," Leo says, even though Villa’s not talking about Zlatan, not really. But the thing is, Leo really means it. Maybe it's not as noticeable now because it's been awhile and Leo's gotten used to it, but the first few weeks without Zlatan, La Masia was really fucking quiet. "I know."  
  
He thinks maybe he should go visit Zlatan, sometime; tells himself that he will.  
  
Villa flicks his cigarette butt into the wet street and heads back inside. Leo watches him go.

 


End file.
